Boot Camp + Vista + Win 7

New Member

I'm running a MacBook Pro with Boot Camp installed so I can run Vista as well. I'd like to try Windows 7 without upgrading on top of Vista. Any way to used EasyBCD to create a new partition for Windows 7 and have the choice to boot to it at start up? I will likely need to create this new partition from the partition presently dedicated to Vista.

New Member

I'm running a MacBook Pro with Boot Camp installed so I can run Vista as well. I'd like to try Windows 7 without upgrading on top of Vista. Any way to used EasyBCD to create a new partition for Windows 7 and have the choice to boot to it at start up? I will likely need to create this new partition from the partition presently dedicated to Vista.

Simple answer. No. EasyBCD can not create any partitions...it is only a tool for modifying your Vista bootloader, not a partitioning tool. For that, you will need something like Gparted or BING. And then once the partition is created, you can use EasyBCD to add entries to boot your Win 7 installation.

Hope this helps!

-Coolname007

EDIT: It is also possible to use the Diskpart tool on your Vista CD/DVD (if you have one...if not, then you should be to use it directly from your Vista OS, though the other option is more preferrable) to resize your Vista partition, and to get some free space to create your new partition for Win 7 out of. Unfortunately, though, this is only a command line tool, so it probably wouldn't be a tool you would want to use. So i would say either go with Gparted or BING...whichever you prefer.

Last edited: Jan 11, 2009

The DARK knight. The knight of DARKNESS.
SHADOW killer. The NINJA, master of darkness, stealth and invisibility.

Jake Johnson​

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Having dual-booting problems? Have a read of the following links to help you better accomplish your goal:

New Member

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll investigate your partitioning suggestions. A follow-up question is that I have a large external USB hard-disk that has enough space to install Windows 7 on (this would get me around having to re-partition anything) but is it possible to use EasyBCD in concert with an external drive? I'm doubtful, but I thought I'd ask.

New Member

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll investigate your partitioning suggestions. A follow-up question is that I have a large external USB hard-disk that has enough space to install Windows 7 on (this would get me around having to re-partition anything) but is it possible to use EasyBCD in concert with an external drive? I'm doubtful, but I thought I'd ask.

Yes, EasyBCD works fine with external drives. However, since i have not had any personal experience in that field, you will have to wait until someone more qualified comes along...i believe PC Eye, and some of the other regulars on this site, have OSes installed on external HDDs, and use EasyBCD successfully.

As for what your first step should be...i don't really think it will make that much of a difference. Either create the partitions first, install EasyBCD on Vista, and then install Win 7, or install EasyBCD first, followed by creating the partition for Win 7, and then lastly, installing Win 7...either way would work fine, in my opinion.

Best of luck.

-Coolname007

Last edited: Jan 11, 2009

The DARK knight. The knight of DARKNESS.
SHADOW killer. The NINJA, master of darkness, stealth and invisibility.

Jake Johnson​

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Having dual-booting problems? Have a read of the following links to help you better accomplish your goal:

Super Moderator

LawMark, I don't think you can use bootcamp at the moment to setup Windows 7 either, so you'll need to do all the partitioning yourself and hope that the drivers for windows on mac hardware will work and that it doesn't mess up your bootcamp/mac config with Vista/OS X in the process (Windows 7 is supposed to be able to work with Vista drivers, but I don't know how it'll work with a beta of Win 7 at the moment).